This document provides information on four American poets from the 19th century: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. It discusses their backgrounds and contributions to poetry. Longfellow was the first American poet to gain national popularity and adapted European poetic forms to American subjects and themes. Holmes wrote the famous poem "Old Ironsides" to protest the destruction of the USS Constitution. The document also provides brief overviews of poetic meter, feet, and mood.

2.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 Harvard professor, very popular poet
 John Greenleaf Whittier
 Quaker farm family
 James Russell Lowell
 Aristocracy
 Oliver Wendell Holmes
 Poet-physician, highly honored

3.  1807-1882
 1stAmerican poet to create a
national interest in poetry
 VERY popular…75th birthday treated like holiday
 Adapted traditional European forms/themes to
American subjects
 Romanticized view of America‟s history and
democratic ideals
 Poetry = optimistic, sentimental

4.  1809-1894
 Descendant of Anne Bradstreet
 Studied law for a bit, changed to
medicine
 Doctor, poet, professor
 Essays = exaggeration, quotable
 “OldIronsides”  protesting
destruction of battleship
Constitution (War of 1812)
 Poem saved ship, made Holmes
nationally recognized poet

5.  Meter : systematic arrangement of stressed and
unstressed syllables
 Foot : basic unit of meter
 Iamb : most common foot in American poetry;
unstressed syllable, stressed syllable
˘ = breve (unstressed) „ = ictus
(stressed)

6.  Example : Iambic Tetrameter  four iambs per line
The sun that brief December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray
 Mood : atmosphere; the feeling created in a reader
by a literary work
 Influenced by setting, tone, subject, word choice